Thomas Spurlin

The tides seem to be turning once again for the monthly console subscription services, as one slips into the shadows with a trio of ill-fitting freebies and the other makes its presence well known with timely, substantive new entries into their included catalogue. Xbox Game Pass demonstrates how to please a crowd this month by landing arguably the most popular title to come out this month – perfectly timed in coordination with Halloween spooky season – and still work in a few other noteworthy goodies alongside it, from a unique action-RPG to another horror-tilted title for those who aren’t into shooters or coop titles. While the Games With Gold inclusions remain lackluster, the whole package available here has way more treats than tricks for October. Let’s take a closer look, but before doing so, be sure Grab a 3-Month Game Pass Ultimate Subscription at Amazon to take advantage of both the Game Pass and Games With Gold offerings discussed below.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Back 4 Blood

It’s been over a decade since the release of Left 4 Dead 2, and while the landscape of shooters and cooperative gaming experiences has changed quite a bit during that time, the positive energy and memories generated by that franchise remain quite strong among its fanbase. The original creators of Left 4 Dead, Turtle Rock Studios, still see this as an opportunity despite the amount of time that has passed and how gaming has changed, and they’ve decided to stick to the formula in creating Back 4 Blood. Between the title and the source of the game, the associations and intentions of this squad-based shooter are simple: this is essentially the Left 4 Dead 3 that people have wanted for so long,

This isn’t literally a sequel though, obviously. Instead of borrowing generously from and leaning so heavily on The Walking Dead, Back 4 Blood features a more progressed post-apocalyptic scenario where a much larger portion of the global human population has already been infected with a foreign parasite, likely extraterrestrial, that turns them into pseudo-zombies. As these “Ridden” populate the landscape, a group of experienced survivors known as “Cleaners” battle against them and help purge them from vulnerable zones.  Gameplay follows suit, allowing for 4 co-op players through the harrowing campaign or 8 during PvP multiplayer sessions.  During a spooky season near the end of a pandemic where everyone’s still getting their bearings straight with meeting up in person, Back 4 Blood showed up at the perfect time.

Marvel’s The Avengers

The hype train moved at full throttle for this videogame adaptation of The Avengers, largely on the steam of it being an entirely original story with semi-fresh faces for all the heroes – not just duplications of their movie counterparts – and an all-star cast of game voice talents bringing them to life. On a fundamental level, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal get a lot right with their take on monumental property, in which they’ve crafted an intriguing campaign around a finely-tuned narrative and do just about everything they can to make the player feel as if they’ve gained control of one of the Avengers. While the central new-ish character Kamala Khan takes on the bulk of the gameplay, that doesn’t mean it will shy away from the others, including, yes, giving players control over Thor’s flying and hammer-hurling self.

At its core, Marvel’s Avengers is a fine game … but it’s also surrounded by a lot of widely-reported issues, notably with play longevity and repetitiveness, bugs, and an unrewarding loot system. It’s a game that the developers planned on expanding upon and supporting with new content – specifically, new Avengers as controllable characters — for roughly a year after release, yet players had essentially already played and moved on from it not too long after it hit shelves. This has left the game in something of an awkward state because for it being a dozen hours of Avengers power fantasy, most critics and players would say it’s perfectly enjoyable with those expectations in mind, especially for it being a Game Pass inclusion.  It just isn’t the living, evolving superhero experience many expected it to be.

Scarlet Nexus

Transcending the line that separates mainstream content and anime-styled content isn’t easy to accomplish, even if the likes of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest make it look easier. Scarlet Nexus takes the visual language of modern anime and brings it down a few notches to a more accessible 3D landscape, telling a story about futurist technology involving the physiological makeup of the brain, how society has tapped into it to unlock human potential, and how the gifted ones can have powers unlocked so they  can be protectors of this society. From there, players gain control of their choice of two protagonists, male or female, who are equipped with exceptional sensory and psychokinetic abilities, making them perfect warriors against alien invading forces.

Both in concept and gameplay, Scarlet Nexus shares some similarities with recent surprise hit Control, wherein the player has the ability to levitate objects with the characters’ mental powers and utilize them in combat and around the level designs. The differences give this game from Bandai Namco their distinctive edge, as the protagonists wield katanas and chain combos with bladework and energy utilization, against a beautiful semi-open urban Japanese landscape. The storytelling in Scarlet Nexus has been infused with stylish, but not overly amped-up anime conversation panels that’ll teeter on the line of accessibility for players out there, concisely getting storytelling beats in there amid what’s otherwise a consistent rush of action-RPG energy.

Visage

It’s been seven years since Hideo Kojima and filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro released what’s best known as PT, or “Playable Teaser”. Essentially a proof-of-concept exercise for what Kojima could do with the medium in the current gaming landscape, inherently making one excited for a new iteration of Silent Hill, the brief experience left a mark on gaming culture that hasn’t eased up. It’s frequently cited as one of the scariest videogames ever created … and then was then removed from download platforms following the cancellation of Silent Hills, the project for which it was developed, causing a panic among gamers who didn’t have the file downloaded. Consoles were sold online at a premium because they had PT installed on them, and remakes of the whole experience have since been built in other platforms.

The above paragraph focuses so much on Playable Teaser because SadSquare Studio uses its design and unresolved legacy as a direct springboard for Visage, their own indie survival horror experience. In a house with a complex layout, the game takes place shortly after the main character has committed a murder-suicide upon his family, causing him to awaken in a roomw while covered in blood and seemingly locked within the house. While he searches for clues on how to get out, Visage separates into focused chapters based on the objects he interacts with inside the house, taking him on a journey through the paranormal and the morbid as he learns more about the house’s history. Visage may not be the next Silent Hill everyone wanted, but its head is in the same space as a spiritual successor to what could’ve been.

Xbox Games With Gold

Xbox’s Games With Gold unfortunately continues a downward slope in substance and quality by making four underwhelming titles available for longstanding subscribers to their legacy program. Starting things off on the Xbox One is Aaero (October 1-31), a music coordination on-the-rails racing game with a retro-futuristic aesthetic that reminds one of Guitar Hero, Wipeout, and Tempest all thrown in a blender, with electronic dance music propelling it forward. Both critics and players found enjoyment in getting into the groove with Aaero, though the game mechanics seem to run out of interest after getting through a few hours of it. The other current-gen title is Hover (October 16-November 15), which also hits is own rhythmic kinetic stride as the player gains control of a parkour running trickster in a bright neon environment. Critics have been kind to the general free-roaming experience, but finding the mission and interface aspects holding it all together to have missed their mark.

On the Xbox 360 are a pair of nostalgic horror-themed titles with highly mixed reputations.  Castlevania: Harmony of Despair (October 1-15) is noteworthy for bringing protagonists from previous installments of the franchise together into a co-op environment, where they work to eliminate Dracula or compete against one another in Survival Mode to see who’s the better hunter. Both critics and players find something appealing in the game design, but also feel there isn’t enough variety or substance to keep going with it. The other is Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD (October 16-31), an installment in the legendary series that was once revered two decades ago on the Dreamcast, but already stated to feel dated several years later with its Gamecube port and continued to feel even more so with this poorly-received HD upgrade from a decade back.

October’s Xbox Game Pass, Gold Titles: Back 4 Halloween Action

Thomas Spurlin

One of the somewhat cruel and unusual things about 2021 is that while it’s been incredibly difficult to obtain video game systems, notably the backwards-compatible Xbox Series X and the PS5, this has also been a particularly fantastic year for new video game releases.  While there are some exceptions, for the most part this quality stems from studios revisiting longstanding franchises for either sequels or conscientious remasters, which results in a slate of new titles that almost comes across like comfort food. From Samus and Ratchet to Commander Shepard and Link, there’s a lot of familiar territory this year.

The familiarity also comes about in surprising ways, though. An unofficial, spiritual sequel to a popular franchise stumbled into the gaming arena, while another horror series borrowed generously from one of its older, most popular installments in creation of a very overt callback game. And then, a studio answers the impassioned requests of fans for a sequel to a decade-and-a-half old property.  What’s remarkable is that barring a few expected quibbles with modern-era glitches or perhaps some features that could’ve been beefed up or done better, the wide spectrum of games have all received rampant acclaim, to a degree where it was tough leaving off games from this list instead of finding stuff to add.

Below, you’ll find a list of over a dozen video games worth giving for the holiday season, with links to each game’s page on Amazon to make purchasing easy. Be sure to pay attention to the system format for the game this year, though, as the visual differences between Xbox and PlayStation games of different console types can be somewhat minimal. You’ll know a Switch game when you see it.

For the Open World Lover With an Open Mind

Following a period where it seemed like every big game had to be a sandbox time-sink as a prerequisite, it seems like that demand for everything open-world seems to have hit a decline.  If a game has an open aspect, now it’s usually in service of novel gameplay or quirky personality to justify it. Below are a pair of games that actually make the player want to continue exploring the nooks and crannies of the world they’re in.

No More Heroes 3

• After nearly a decade away from the series proper, Travis Touchdown returns from the middling success of a spinoff title for No More Heroes 3. With this return, the series also reintroduces several popular aspects from previous titles, notably a more open world for exploration.
• No More Heroes 3 takes place two years after the spinoff game and takes the action to a grander scale, pitting Travis Touchdown against invading aliens who have established a new tier of assassins to eliminate and drawing him back to the fictional California city of Santa Destroy.
• Travis must earn enough money to move up the ladder of assassins, and he does so by traveling across 5 distinct islands completing side tasks and grinding, utilizing his “beam katana” and wrestling repertoire to get him through the brisk, amusing third-person combat scenarios and pop-culture references.

Click to Order on Amazon

Hitman 3

• IO Interactive has poured a lot of energy into making the rejuvenated Hitman franchise a satisfying mix of old-school stealth pleasures and modern polish and open-world freedom, and they’ve reached a pinnacle with Hitman 3, opting for fan-pleasing refinement over rocking the boat with changes.
• The story follows Agent 47 as he flips allegiances and works to take down Providence, a cabal of powerful political and industrial forces pulling strings from the shadows.  Expect lots of big twists and turns, which is where most of the risk-taking for the game takes place.
• While the plot makes significant moves of the espionage variety, the freedom of the gameplay and its willingness to not take itself too seriously lets Hitman 3 feel like familiar territory, allowing for a wide variety of ways to complete missions and create chaos if desired.

Click to Order on Amazon

For the Patient Gamer Awaiting the Return of Fan-Fave Franchises

It’s impressive to see the longevity and staying power of video game characters and settings, as we’ve reached a point in the culture where a property can lie dormant for a decade or two – or three! – and come back with a vengeance if there’s enough passion and demand. All three of these properties have undeniable fanbases behind them, and the resurgence of two of them isn’t exactly unexpected. However, the fact that the first game on this list exists at all is a marvel, a delightful fruition of fan requests stemming from an initial game that, while it’s built a cult following since release, didn’t sell well.

Psychonauts 2

• A devoted fanbase has been waiting patiently for a second entry in the Psychonauts narrative, continuously asking the folks at Double Fine Productions when they’ll get back there. Well, the mythical has finally turned real with the third-person action platformer Psychonauts 2.
• Players once again gain control of Raz, a wayward and agile acrobat with psychic powers, whose fascination with joining the mental-power research and regulation agency Psychonauts has landed them in their office, the  Motherlobe.  There, he uses his powers to help root out a double agent.
• In a fashion befitting the wacky personality of Double Fine, Psychonauts 2 weaves together a compelling premise with clever, bizarre puzzle-platform levels, while also striking a meaningful chord involving mental health in the process.

Click to Order on Amazon

Metroid Dread

• It’s been a while since a new Metroid game has been released, but it’s been even longer since a new 2D Metroid game – that isn’t a remake — has rolled onto the scene.  Metroid Dread goes back to the series roots and delivers a fresh side-scrolling adventure with Nintendo icon Samus Aran.
• Originally conceived as a Nintendo DS follow-up to a Game Boy title from the early 2000s, Dread follows Samus as she investigates the alien planet ZDR after parasite-killing EMMI robots fail to complete their mission. Ambushed and lacking full powers, Samus must battle local enemies and sneak past the EMMIs.
• Dread gets the Metroid formula back to its roots with 2D side-scrolling level design with a modernized feel, placing Samus in the position of both hunter and hunted through old-school skill progression through levels and new stealth components. It does everything a classic Metroid game should do, well.

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Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart

• Despite their rampant popularity during the PS2 and PS3 eras, Ratchet and Clank only showed up once during the PS4 era for a reboot/reimagining of the first game, titled Ratchet and Clank. Their devoted fans have been waiting anxiously, and now they’ve received Rift Apart on the PS5.
• Rift Apart serves as a meeting-point sequel to both 2013’s Into the Nexus, the last game produced for the PS3, and 2016’s Ratchet and Clank. During a battle with Dr. Nefarious, several dimensional rifts open and relocate the characters to alternate realities; Clank is found by Rivet, a female Lombax like Ratchet.
• Using a new device called a Rift Tether, both Ratchet and Rivet can zip between portals to realities, a new gameplay tactic introduced within the series’ signature run-‘n-gun antics and bountiful artillery. A mix of old and new weapons, locations, and combat mechanics ensure Rift Apart has something for all.

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For Those Who Enjoy (Re)Playing Beloved Games Polished in HD

Sometimes developers make remastered versions of games simply because they want to ensure fans will keep playing and remembering the same game for years, preserving legacies by essentially making archive versions of their games to keep up with the times.  Other times, however, studios take risks and get their hands dirty with improving certain titles by listening to fan feedback, and the result ends up being a noteworthy upgrade and a reason for people to revisit that goes beyond nostalgia. Both the titles below have that going for them.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition

• Nearly a decade after the series reached a polarizing conclusion, the folks at BioWare have begun the process of revisiting the Mass Effect franchise with this Legendary Edition collection for newer consoles.  All three games from the original trilogy have been included, along with their respective DLCS.
• Players gain control of Commander Shepard, who can be a customized character creation or a preset, as they race against time to stop the Lovecraftian Reapers from wiping out civilization. The player makes choices – from who live and dies to brokering deals and building relationships – that’ll have degrees of impact throughout the whole series.  
• The original Mass Effect received a drastic overhaul in visuals and gameplay without fundamentally changing how it operates, while the other two games have been more subtly polished. Like this, including the extended version of the ending and all the character and story DLC, Mass Effect feels complete and still presents one of the most engrossing and adaptable sci-fi arcs in gaming.

Click to Order on Amazon

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD

• Once considered the black sheep of the modern Legend of Zelda creations, Skyward Sword has enjoyed some laid-back reevaluation amid Breath of the Wild’s successful tweaking of the franchise. This HD remaster takes some voiced issues to heart and shapes it into a fresh, worthwhile adventure on Switch.
• Skyward Sword follows many of the familiar story beats of other Legend of Zelda games, yet its focus on the early aspects of the history of the Hyrule kingdom and the Skyloft setting in the clouds give it an extra dose of storytelling intrigue. Link still needs to rescue Zelda, hacking-‘n-slashing across time.
• Skyward Sword HD may not have drastically improved visuals, but other aspects of the new version make it well worth a second look, from tweaking the autosave feature to making it so the game doesn’t require motion controls (the Joy Cons can still be used this way).  Link’s still in baggy trousers and the level design and exploration show their age, but this Switch version improves the conditions to enjoy it.

Click to Order on Amazon

For the Nostalgic Horror Lover

Whether it’s by being stranded among zombies in a European village or teaming up with buddies to wipe out infected humans, the horror games included below rustle up memories of game past through wildly different methods.

Resident Evil Village

• Arguably the best entry in the Resident Evil series succeeded by isolating itself in a small European village invaded by a zombie-creating parasite. Capcom decided to try and recapture this magic with Resident Evil Village, taking place a few years after the last one and featuring protagonist Ethan Winters.
• From a first-person viewpoint, Village lets the player openly explore the stuck-in-the-1800s European village, allowing them to use the setting for tactical combat against the enemies. Aside from the now iconic vampire Lady Dimitrescu and her sisters, Ethan battles against werewolf like creatures in an effort to rescue his daughter.
• Resident Evil: Village brings the scale back to a stripped-down, scarier place in how Ethan explores the area and scrounges together an inventory of resources, combining iconic aspects from earlier games – there’s unsurprisingly a lot of Resident Evil 4 in here — with what’s worked in the current iterations.

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Back 4 Blood

• The folks responsible for the Left 4 Dead franchise, Turtle Rock Studios, have returned after a decade to deliver the spiritual third entry in the franchise.  Back 4 Blood is the result, and while it isn’t pound-for-pound an exact continuation of those popular games, the developers got about as close as they can.
• Somewhat differently, Back 4 Blood takes place about a year after a parasitic outbreak has claimed much of humanity, where groups of survivors known as Cleaners try to clear out post-apocalyptic surroundings. This progression makes the atmosphere a little lighter while coordinating squad attacks.
• Sure, Turtle Rock deliberately models much of the co-op gameplay off Left 4 Dead, but they’ve also incorporated modern RPG-ish aspects like deeper weapon customization and skill cards to update the gameplay.  Coupled with plentiful maps and a quality attitude, Back 4 Blood largely feels like the sequel everyone’s wanted.

Click to Order on Amazon

For Those Dazzled By Conceptual Sci-Fi

Whether it’s temporal anomalies, tapping into the power of human brain, or the idea of superheroes being a bunch of poor renegades traversing the galaxy for their next payday, these games latch onto unique science-fiction concepts and apply relatively conventional gaming control ideas to them. The results are thrilling entertainment against the backdrop of engrossing sci-fi atmospheres.

Deathloop

• Stealth, steampunk, and the supernatural interweave in the games of Arkane Studios, the team behind the Dishonored series. Deathloop continues that legacy, telling a story of assassinations and time loops that plays into the studio’s narrative strengths while hooking the player with novel mechanics.
• With a setting that’s more identifiable and realistic than Arkane’s previous worlds, pegged to the ‘60s or ‘70s, Deathloop follows an assassin who must eliminate 8 different targets on an island in the same time loop … or else the timeline will reset. Naturally, another assassin is also hunting the main character to thwart their progress.
• Paying attention to details and routines is one of the keys to success in Deathloop, which incorporates a familiar caliber of strategy to Arkane’s previous games, observing how obstacles move and knowing what weapons to use for different scenarios. It opts for a credible variety of solutions to endless possibilities, and that’s ideal for a concept with a bunch of moving parts already. Deathloop is a timed PS5 exclusve; Xbox users should expect to pay it next year.

Click to Order on Amazon

Scarlet Nexus

• Some might be quick to dismiss Scarlet Nexus based on the anime stylings of the characters and the conversation panels, but they’d be overlooking a much more engaging action-RPG experience from Bandai Namco that taps into fast-paced action, open-roam exploration, and science-fiction concepts.
• Echoing the stellar sci-fi action game Control, Scarlet Nexus focuses on agents for a supernatural defense force who also have psychokinetic abilities. The world-building differs in how society has developed around the potential of the human brain, and how citizens with elevated abilities are recruited to defend civilization from hostile aliens.
• Scarlet Nexus makes the most of its relatively standard anime-style plotting and conversational rhythm by dialing up the smooth superpower combat and chaotic battles with unique enemies. And it only grows more interesting as the player gains access to further abilities and explores the futuristic Japanese landscape.

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Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy

• While the enthusiasm for Marvel’s The Avengers may have petered out much quicker than most had anticipated, that shouldn’t hold one back from jumping into  Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which has one very clear thing going for it: it’s focused on delivering an engaging single-player experience.
• In a post-galactic war environment, the story finds the Guardians of the Galaxy – Peter, Gomora, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and Drax — strapped for cash and willing to go to sketchy lengths to make some. They end up pissing off the wrong person while on a mission to make a quick buck, which chains together the events that’ll shape this new raucous adventure.
• This game from Eidos and Square goes down a different path than the Avengers game by molding the story around light RPG elements, allowing the story to branch from choices made and dialogue chosen in prompts. Wrapped around serviceable, if repetitive third-person sci-fi shooting, Guardians of the Galaxy makes an effort to fill the space opera RPG void left in the absence of others like Mass Effect.

Click to Order on Amazon

For the Console Gamer Who Misses Out On Great PC Titles

Console players lucked out this year, as they’ve been granted the honor of being able to play two of the best PC titles to come out in recent memory, in very short order. They couldn’t be more different, either: one’s a colorfully action-based dungeon crawler with levels of difficulty, and the other’s a bleakly moody and dialogue-heavy RPG with layers of complexity.

Hades

• This roguelike dungeon crawler has amassed a strong following since its release, touting it as one of the best current games that couldn’t be played on Xbox or PlayStation. After much celebration, Hades has finally been ported over to those systems a year later, in both digital and physical formats.
• After gaining control of the Prince of the Underworld, players navigate through the beautiful, complex maze of the constantly changing realm as the Olympian gods cheer you on. The path is challenging and unpredictable, but gifts from the gods help the journey, if you can keep them. Die, and boons are reset.
• Between the ever-changing dungeon and the boons to other character-driven paths the game can take, Hades has been designed with countless runs in mind, and it generates enough excitement to do so. That also makes it worthwhile to get this physical edition for the shelf, which includes a 32-page character compendium and a digital code for the soundtrack.

Click to Order on Amazon

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

• While Hades gets the adrenaline flowing through its action and unpredictability, Disco Elysium has been making a name for itself in the opposite spectrum. A dialogue-driven RPG that’s almost entirely stat-based and driven by dialogue or situational decisions, it has been celebrated as one of the best of the genre since its release.
• As a boozed-up detective, the player navigates the subtly futuristic realm of Elysium to pursue the case, which opens up a wealth of conversations and only the tools in the character’s noggin to navigate them. Skills are all about temperament, and as the character moves up in level, overdeveloped aspects of their personality can come into conflict with one another while trying to “succeed” in a conversation. Min/max isn’t effective here.
• Due to the fluid nature of the skills and the wealth of options at the player’s disposal – the game and setting originated as a tabletop RPG, after all – Disco Elysium carries heaps of replay value for the right type of player, with the Final Cut’s addition of fully voiced characters and new quests elevating that.

Click to Order on Amazon

2021 Gift Guide: Video Games for the Holiday Season

Thomas Spurlin

Last year’s hardware gift guide began with the somewhat obvious preface that 2020 was an incredibly different year in several ways, with the video game market both thriving and struggling with supply issues … and that was before the next generation of consoles were released before holiday shopping. Ideally, a year later, one would imagine that some of the issues might be smoothed out, and that this following holiday season would be primed for gift givers to get their loved ones caught up on the latest and most desirable in gaming. Alas, with the extended stay of the pandemic and its impacts on both the construction and distribution of electronics, it looks as if 2021 will be another year where folks will be frantically searching for the elusive next-generation consoles … and probably the other consoles, too.

Availability of those ever-so-desirable PS5s and Xbox Series X consoles will be in short, narrow windows where folks will need to be at the right place at the right time to get what they’re wanting to give. On top of that, it’ll be a bit tougher to “substitute” the newest systems with those of the current generation due to how many games simply perform more properly on the newer ones, even though heaps of great games still came out on them this year. At least Nintendo Switches shouldn’t be impossible to obtain this year, though it wouldn’t be unwise to go ahead and grab one of those while they’re available now.

Below, we’ve pieced together a bit of a guide to help point readers in the right directions during what will likely be yet another complicated holiday shopping season. Be sure to check out our Software Guide to figure out which games to gift.

For Fans of Marvel, God of War, and 4K UltraHD Superiority, Gift This.

In the early stages of this side-by-side console release, choosing between one or the other usually boiled down to brand loyalty, exclusives, and scrutinizing specks without much hands-on review impressions.  After a year of seeing how these consoles perform, the choices have expectedly become much easier and determined by less factors, with the PS5 having two easy and noteworthy positives in its column: it has a not-so-arguably superior slate of exclusive games, and it’s a reliable, above-par 4K playback device. Discussions about performance have become more practical: while there may be moments of stronger processing power on the Series X, both essentially play their big, shared games on about the same level, and that’s understandable since the two machines are incredibly similar under the hood.

When it comes to their library, the PS5 started things off on a strong note by having their exclusive Spider-Man: Miles Morales title ready at launch, an impression that’s continued at a low, consistent level over the past year. Deathloop, Ratchet and Clank, and the dazzling remakes of Final Fantasy VII and Demon’s Souls are currently only available on PlayStation consoles, and future titles like God of War Ragnarok, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Wolverine will continue their exclusivity on Sony’s hardware. After a brief digital hiccup at release that overclocked the brightness levels while watching movies, the PS5 has also very quietly taken the crown as the superior 4K UltraHD disc player, though that’s to be expected from the company that produces dedicates players.  While neither are top of the line in that arena, the PS5 has developed a reputation for being more stable and crisper through playback.

Check Price/Availability on Amazon Or Search Ben’s for PS5 Console Deals

For Those Who Value Nostalgia, Versatile Power, and Bethesda, Gift This.

Following the shaky release of the Xbox One, Microsoft has restructured their game plan to fill a void and satisfy users in ways neglected by their competitors: through easy backwards compatibility. While other systems choose to focus almost entirely on the latest and greatest, the folks at Xbox figured out that making older games and libraries available to play on their next-gen console wouldn’t so drastically impact the attention placed on new content, resulting in their effort to make 360 and even original Xbox games playable on the system through emulation. One of the most compelling parts of the Xbox Series X has been how one can essentially unplug all their old hardware from the Xbox One, plug it into the same slots on the Series X, and they’re good to go with continuing their gaming without much of hassle. Those games installed on an external HD? Easily playable on the Series X once the system recognizes it.

Here’s the thing: the Xbox Series X can also process games on a more advanced level, whether they’re new or classics. While new titles have been “Optimized for Xbox Series X” to take advantage of the full 4K graphical power coming from this machine, old-school games like Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls: Morrowind have also been “Xbox One X Enhanced” with immense performance upgrades that make replaying them more than just a nostalgic rehash of joy, and effortlessly playable from either discs or external HDs. From storage and controller adaptability to downloading both old and new titles through the Xbox Game Pass subscription program, the experience in owning an Xbox Series X feels more diverse and accessible than the others … and the purchase of Fallout and Elder Scrolls gamemaker Bethesda Studios by Microsoft will have significant ramifications on the exclusivity of games to come.

Check Price/Availability on Amazon Or Search Ben’s for Xbox Series X Deals

For Those Who Love Portability, Family-Friendly Quality, and Zelda, Gift This.

Limited Edition Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch Console

Pros: Cute Colors, Kid-Room Appropriate, Semi-Available | Cons: Game Not Included MSRP: $299

Through the development and release of these new powerhouse systems, the Nintendo Switch has been content with being along for the ride, serving as both a primary gaming system for some folks and a secondary one for those who choose sides in the console wars. Sales were phenomenal in the previous year during the rise in popularity of Animal Crossing: New Horizons amid the pandemic, and the release of several games from Nintendo’s attention-grabbing franchises – Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Metroid Dread, and Mario Party – make the system equally or perhaps even more appealing this holiday season. Outside of issues where the screen gets scuffed in the dock and the motion controls have a brief lapse in connectivity, Nintendo’s hybridized system has proven to be a wildly successful experiment.

From among the primary video game systems of the latest generation and the one before it, the Switch will likely be the least difficult system to purchase this year. Currently, some models of Nintendo’s portable-home crossbred console can be purchased for mid-November delivery from Amazon, though the color selection is already limited.  Bear in mind that the Animal Crossing version of the Nintendo Switch console, which does seem to be floating in and out of stock currently at several locations, does not come with that game included: an easy mistake to make considering how it’s designed. Some colors of the Nintendo Switch Lite – the compact, portable-only version of the system that doesn’t hook up to the TV or use detachable motion controllers — also seem to be available in a few colors right now at the $199 price point.

Check Price/Availability on Amazon Or Search Ben’s for Switch Console Deals

So, Uh … Where Are They? A Guide of a Different Sort.

Normally, this is where the Holiday Video Game Hardware Guide explores different console bundles and other gift options, but 2021 is a unique year where a perfect storm of slowed manufacturing, supply-chain issues, and halted last-gen console production has resulted in a major shortage across the board. Awesome bundles of last-gen gaming systems thrown together with some of their most popular titles are nowhere to be found, nor are most of the creative and colorful skinned systems, and it’s a struggle to even find regular standalone consoles from the PS4 and Xbox One era.

This isn’t a year where walking into a place that sells video games and walking out with holiday shopping done will be a common occurrence; in fact, most will have to resort to strategizing with different stores and keeping an eagle eye on stock will be necessary. Here are some of the methods that people are using to keep track of in-stock status of certain systems:

Twitter. One of the quickest and most reliable methods to receive alerts will be through Twitter, as there are numerous accounts dedicated to stock updates: @PS5StockNews, @SwitchStockNews, @XboxStockAlerts and so on. It’s possible to continuously refresh the Twitter feed for updates, but signing up for an account and following them will allow you to receive real-time updates when new stock alerts are published, so one can hop online and grab a system before that dreaded gray “out of stock” button shows up once again.

Get Connected. Different brick-and mortal stores will also have certain programs available so that customers may luck out and get one of the restocked systems, though they all involve jumping through hoops. One of the consistent themes about nearly all of the options is that it pays to be a member of some fashion to one of the stores, as that will grant exclusive access either to early info about the drops … or straight-up access to the consoles themselves when they’re available.

• BestBuy has a new TotalTech program that costs subscribers $200/year, but it boasts access to in-demand electronics before non-subscribers, and it makes sense that PS5s and Series X consoles would apply. The TotalTech program also comes with product protection benefits, free delivery and installation of purchases, around-the-clock GeekSquad service, and extended return windows alongside the discount perks, so there’s plenty of other stuff that comes alongside the membership fee.
• Walmart also has a subscription service, Walmart+, that grants early access to deals for its customers, and that has applied to next-gen console availability. Pricing for the subscription is $13/month or right at $100 for a year, and it also comes with free store-to-home deliveries, gas discounts and free shipping for Walmart items regardless of price (normally orders over $35 ship free).
• Costco recently got a restock on console bundles as well, but obviously only for members. That bundle features the console, an extra controller, a premium headset, and subscription cards for PlayStation’s 2 services. Here’s the landing page for that PS5 bundle.
• NewEgg periodically restocks with their own custom bundle (usually an extra controller and/or an HD Camera), but it’s gated by a raffle system called NewEgg Shuffle. After signing up for a NewEgg account, customers can visit the Shuffle page or receive notifications to be entered into specific raffles, which are started once certain items hit the warehouse.  The landing page for that PS5 bundle can be found here.
• GameStop will be announcing when inventory will be available at select locations. Recently, they made a page available for a console “Bundle Event”, in which certain stores in and surrounding a half-dozen major cities would have custom bundles available on a given date at 8am. Bundles have also been available to purchase online, though the company’s PowerUp Rewards Pro Members — $14.99 for purchase discounts and trade/point benefits, or $19.99 if you want physical GameInformer magazines – have early access.

There’s no telling what the next few weeks leading up to Black Friday will have in store, whether little pockets of console stock will be unearthed and made available to the general public, or not. Until then, it’s the kind of year where one can only wish shoppers the best of luck in tracking down and rushing home with their treasures.

For Those Who Have Their System Situation Under Control, Gift This.

Pictured: Xbox’s Limited Controller in Aqua Shift

The one semi-benefit to there being a console shortage is that gift givers will likely have an easier time picking up the extra items for a given system, and just about every gamer will tell you that a new controller is a welcome sight. Also, with this being a year into the console’s life cycle, some new color options have been debut. While Sony has cranked out Midnight Black and Cosmic Red variants of their stock white controller, the folks at Xbox have predictably made more headway with numerous color variants that are compatible with the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X. That includes a snazzy Aqua Shift blue ombre controller that was released in August.

If none of the stock options will suit a specific person’s personality and they’re on the Xbox, there’s the Xbox Design Lab, which reopened for business in July of this year.

Click Here to Visit Xbox’s Revamped Design Lab

For Online Players and Freebie/Deal Hunters, Gift These.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate / PS+ Subscriptions

Game Pass Ultimate 3-Month on Amazon PS+ 12 Month on Amazon

Each yeah, there’s a little bit of uncertainty when discussing the future of the main console subscription services, as to what they’ll look like in the near future and whether card purchases are still viable.  Regardless of the answer, the recommendation hasn’t really changed … until this year. While folks on Sony consoles will still be content with picking up year subscriptions to PlayStation Plus, those on the Xbox side of things may want to consider a shift, or perhaps more accurately an upgrade. This also opens a prime opportunity for a quality gift as well, one that’s essentially worth what the receiver decides to squeeze out of it.

Instead of loading up on yet another 12 Month subscription of the baseline Xbox Live service, folks will want to take a close look at the value of the Game Pass Ultimate program. Over the past year, the benefits of subscribing to just that program have dwindled: online play remains a must, but the Games With Gold freebies and associated discounts at the Xbox Store haven’t been as worthwhile. While the Game Pass Ultimate subscription is notably more expensive — $15/month as opposed to $10/month for Live; card discount prices not taken into account – it also opens the door for subscribers to download a huge amount of current, quality games and have access to the same Games With Gold benefits. There’s a Game Pass Only subscription for $10/month as well, but the online play might be integral to the subscription decision and the combo rate is preferable. Cards only come in 3-month increments though, for now.

For Tabletop and Tech Enthusiasts, As Well As For The Fam, Gift This.

Arcade 1UP’s Infinity Table

Pros: Movable, Pause Games, Apps Added; Cons: Light on Game Quantity | MSRP: $699/899

Over the past 4-5 years, Arcade1UP has been gradually building a reputation for its brand, delivering affordable yet high-quality duplications of arcade game cabinets at roughly ¾ scale. Many attempts have been made to do similar emulations and failed to fully capture the retro spirit, so it’s a noteworthy accomplishment for this company to survive the scrutiny of nostalgic gamers and become known as a reliable source of decent hardware. After moving to slightly unique products with their pinball machine and reshaped “counter-cade” cabinet for bar tops, Arcade1UP now moves into another more innovative stage of their product line with the Infinity Table.

What began as a Kickstarter campaign last year has moved into general availability, with two sizes of table displays currently available: 24” at $699, and 32” at $899. The Infinity Table essentially functions like a giant touchscreen tablet that exclusively boots up old-school board games and family-friendly activities.  For some, that might downplay the uniqueness of the product; for others, the concept of a “giant game tablet” will effortlessly draw their attention. Nearly 50 different applications are available as of this writing, including licensed games that range from Monopoly and Scrabble to the outstanding strategy game Pandemic. The availability for new titles to be loaded into its library makes it very appealing, especially if they keep up the momentum by licensing more quality board games.

Click For the 24″ Model on Amazon Click For the 32″ Model on Amazon

2021 Gift Guide: Video Game Hardware and Accessories

Thomas Spurlin

November has finally arrived, and with it comes some jockeying between the Xbox camp and other consoles for who’ll come out on top during the holiday shopping rush. Thing is, due to the rampant unavailability of consoles across the board because of supply-chain issues, it’s looking like a complicated month – more so than normal — where folks will be beyond lucky to buy a console of any kind throughout the holidays. There’s a lot of distractions going on right now, but at least Microsoft is stepping up with quality releases through their Game Pass program to help out.

While their Games With Gold titles remain lackluster, they’ve provided some real attention-grabbing titles to their other subscription program this month, from a huge new release and an game-of-the-year contended to a highly popular remastered classic … even though that one’s getting dragged through the mud right now.  Let’s take a closer look at the games, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon for access to these downloads and exclusive deals on their marketplace.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Forza Horizon 5

Playground Games’ Forza series has become appointment-worthy over the past decade of its development, providing some of the clearest examples of how the Xbox console’s graphics and tech are progressively pushed beyond their limits. Starting with the original 360 title and moving to Forza 4 on the One, there’s a clear and observable succession of improvement across the life cycle Microsoft’s last-gen system. From game modes and familiar included cars to the general impressiveness of the graphics, the advancements aren’t of the same caliber as sports games that seem to reproduce largely the same experience year after year. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the company’s first installment designed with the Xbox Series X in mind would be hotly anticipated, and it arrives in style.

Forza 5 takes the action to Mexico, producing an open-world driving landscape that’s been crafted with research and reference from across the range of areas there, a purposeful design choice to amp up the variety in gameplay. That is, if the 500+ cars available in this installment can’t do that on their own, on top of the new dynamic weather system, the car and player-character customization, and the scattering of play modes across the otherwise sandbox environment. Both critics and players alike have had nothing but positive things to say about Forza Horizon 5 up to this point, celebrating both its aesthetic polish and its combo of gameplay variety and arcade excitement.

Grand Theft: Auto San Andreas — Definitive Edition

Enough has been said about the quality of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas over the years that it almost feels unnecessary to mention how thoroughly it impacted the PS2-era of gaming consoles, whose popularity could be attributed to reason we’ve got the juggernaut of GTAIV and GTAV today. Unfortunately, there’s another hot topic going around about Rockstar’s game, notably about the quality of the most recent remastering of San Andreas and its predecessors GTAIII and Vice City, being billed as the “definitive edition” of the trilogy. Most would assume that a company like Rockstar – again, the studio behind both these games and the stellar-reviewed Red Dead Redemption series — would effortlessly produce satisfying, crowd-pleasing remasters of these games, but that’s not quite the case.

Developed by Grove Street Games, formerly known as War Drum Studios and as the folks responsible for other Rockstar ports, these Definitive Editions of the GTA games have been labeled less than stellar for a number of reasons. From sound quality dips and text misspellings to rampant graphical issues related to both character models and the landscape, the grievances have been voiced quite clearly by early players. It’s for this reason that the addition of San Andreas to the Game Pass library should be celebrated, as players are able to try out this remastered iteration for themselves before jumping into a full trilogy purchase; for some, the issues could be overpowered by the improvements and nostalgia factor.

It Takes Two

The title above is a literal expression of what’s required to play Hazelight’s most recent creation: It Takes Two needs a willing pair of gamers to get through it. This can be a hurdle for some players who like to plow through action-platform style games on their own speed, but when it’s from the mind of content director Josef Fares, there’s a sense of confidence in the requirement having enough purpose to justify it. Fares first made a name for himself in the game arena at Starbreeze Studios by developing the under-the-radar hit Brothers, which utilizes siblings with individual strengths to create innovative gameplay situations that are hinged on expressive storytelling. These are aspects he carries over to his own Hazelight Studios in development of the similarly dramatic co-op adventure A Way Out.

It Takes Two transforms those emotional concepts into actual gameplay designs, in which the young daughter of a soon-to-be divorced couple takes doll versions of her parents off to play, then tries to repair their relationship through thrilling adventures in fantasy landscapes. As these Coraline-esque doll versions of the parents – each controlled by a different player – complete tasks in the level design that echo a wide variety of gameplay styles, it brings aspects of their family relationship more into focus as the two characters gain control of new abilities and coordinate them with one another.  Both critics and players have adamantly sang praises for just about everything involved with It Takes Two, from the novel variety of fluctuating genre styles to the visuals and the cooperative synergies.

Xbox Games With Gold

While Game Pass continues to thrive by offering day-and-date megahits and game-of-the-year contenders, Microsoft’s legacy program Xbox Games With Gold maintains its slope in the opposite direction, showcasing little firepower in their monthly included freebies. Let’s start on the Xbox One with a moving simulator … yes, a moving simulator, as in a puzzle game designed around moving out of a house. In the same vein as Overcooked, Moving Out (November 1-31) takes a mundane activity with potential complications and transforms it into a fast-paced, outlandish cooperative experience that’s assuredly more fun than doing the real thing. Also on the current Xbox system is Kingdom: Two Crowns (November 16-December 15), a beautiful 8-bit inspired, side-scrolling fantasy game that combines settlement management with exploration and survival. Critics and players praise the aesthetic, but feel the slower pace and simplicity hold it back.

Over on the legacy Xbox systems, we’ve got a pair of recognizable faces within middle-of-the-road action games that clearly have younger audiences in mind with their inclusion. First, there’s Rocket Knight (November 1-15), an action-platform game featuring a classic Sega Genesis character revived for the current era. While the original Rocket Knight continues to be regarded as one of the better platform titles on the Genesis, this new iteration proves that modern examples of the genre need a little something extra and need more longevity than what it provides. There’s also LEGO Batman 2 (November 16-30), and let’s be real, the LEGO titles are effortlessly entertaining across the board regardless of peaks and valleys in quality, so the inclusion of the Dark Knight in his blocky form will always be welcome.

November’s Xbox Freebies: Game Pass Moving Up, Gold Moving Out

Thomas Spurlin

Regardless of the shortage in consoles available to purchase, 2021 has been a terrific year for new video game titles. Be sure to hop over to Ben’s Bargain’s Holiday Software Gift Guide to see a brief rundown of some of the hits, which range from novel spins on open-world games and innovations in horror and sci-fi to several celebrated rejuvenations of franchises. There are three variables clogging up the last two months in the year, though, that’d understandably scare off other developers from dropping anything too big during the period: holiday shopping in an already complicated year, the approaching release of Halo in December, and of course Call of Duty.

Even with those things in mind, the months of November ad December shaped up into a diverse, packed stretch of remasters, unique new titles, and one delayed long enough to unfortunately “compete” with CoD in the same genre during November, resulting in a nice array of titles squeezed into the last months before the holidays that could end up being worthwhile gifts. Let’s take a closer look.

Call of Duty: Vanguard – November 5 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

It’s difficult to make heads or tails over whether the gaming community really feels positive or negative about a new Call of Duty title at release, as there’s always a hefty rush of impressions and opinions before and around the big date. Ultimately, this has all but stopped mattering, as the latest COD title works off the nonstop energy of its multiplayer fanbase who’ll continue to purchase the FPS juggernaut despite any iffy thoughts about the latest campaign’s tone and longevity or the multiplayer’s sameness. Despite this, the folks at Sledgehammer, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward – and Raven Software in a support role – have continued to deliver annual titles that utilize AAA polish and ambitions to keep the series immersive, versatile, and exhilarating for both campaign and online players.

Vanguard is the latest, in which the campaign takes the audience back to the World War II and shortly after, where special ops forces are tracking down the actors involved with “Project Phoenix” and a theoretical true successor to Hitler’s place in government. Alongside the interesting single-player narrative, the multiplayer hopes to shake things up with a new “Combat Pacing” function, which allows players to select the intensity, style, and team size for the upcoming match. So far, critics have received both those core aspects of Vanguard fairly well, though there seems to be some “been there, done that” attitudes towards those things and a stronger consensus that the Zombies mode is lacking this year.    

Order Call of Duty: Vanguard at Amazon

Jurassic World Evolution 2 – November 9 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Sequels to sim games have a different set of benchmarks to hit than other genres, and they also tend to have a bit more of a forgiving player base when it comes to delivering incrementally better versions instead of drastically new entries. While enhanced features and expanded options will always be celebrated, there’s also lots of satisfaction to be found in picking up a simulator and discovering that a lot of the gameplay aspects remain the same, kind of like having a bunch of brand-new tools and upcoming projects yet the same workbench and organization area to know where everything’s at. Jurassic World Evolution delivers on the concept of, essentially, a “dinosaur zoo simulator” with callbacks to the movies and books, but critics generally felt that the sim could use more depth.

Evolution 2 has the opportunity to improve upon its middlingly reviewed first entry by improving its big draws, by deepening the business and construction aspects and refining its dinosaur interactions. It hopes to do so by widening the workspace maps – relocated to the US for more landscape variety — and placing more unique demands upon the players, such as maintaining animal diets and catering to different visitor tastes.  Improvements in those areas seem less pertinent to game-makers Frontier Developments than enhancing the authenticity of the dinosaurs themselves, though, upping the species count to 75 and ensuring that their behaviors authentically intersect on a more frequent basis. Whether that’ll amount to enough to make Evolution 2 a worthwhile upgrade remains to be seen.

Order Jurassic World Evolution 2 at Amazon

Skyrim: Anniversary Edition – November 11 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; PC)

At this point, the multiple iterations of Skyrim across several consoles have transformed into a running joke – a meme, if you will. For the most part, all the re-releases have had their purpose for showing up when they did, from lateral ports to other consoles and virtual reality accessibility to new console upgrades that’d hopefully tide players over until Elder Scrolls 6 finally arrives. The mantra’s pretty simple, according to Bethesda’s studio head: so long as players are buying and enjoying Skyrim, they’ll keep finding ways of re-releasing and upgrading the celebrated open-world RPG. Thus, when the announcement came that the studio would release an “anniversary edition” of Skyrim designed for Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles, few if any people were surprised. So, what else could possibly be added?

In essence, the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim makes it easy for players to have an up-to-date version of the complete Special Edition game – including all official DLC — that’s also beefed up with a ton of small to moderate additions through Bethesda’s Creation Club, ranging from artifacts to activities and quests. This includes brand-new content released alongside the Anniversary Edition from the Creation Club, such as fishing, a simulator-ish survival mode, and new quests. The Anniversary Edition also touches up the visuals for next-gen consoles, though those on the Xbox Series X will likely see no appreciable difference over the already optimized version of the Special Edition. There’s a $20 digital upgrade options for those who already own the Special Edition, but there’s also a complete physical copy of the Anniversary Edition for $50.

Get ESV: Skyrim Anniversary Edition at Amazon

GTA: Definitive Trilogy – November 11 (PS4,5; Xbox O/S/X; Switch; PC)

It’s hard to overstate how influential the sequence of Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas was to the video game landscape. GTA III brought together different aspects of free-roaming action and emergent gameplay into a singular experience, Vice City took that blueprint and gave it a distinct, violent attitude … and then San Andreas upped the attitude, narrative potency, and sheer volume and variety of things to do to such a degree that it almost felt like a simulation. The ability for players to do essentially whatever they wanted in a “sandbox”, to create whatever degree of chaos they wanted, became a blueprint for other games to follow that range from revolutionary and historical assassin sims to animated show tie-ins.   They’ve aged, but their legacy exists in the bones of countless modern titles.

One would naturally assume, then, that games with such a rich legacy would receive high-quality remasters, especially during a time when remasters are hotter than normal. The recently renamed Grove Street Games, previously known as War Drum Studios, the developers behind mobile ports of this same trilogy, have undertaken the challenge with this Definitive Edition, and they showed clear inspiration early on in how to approach the project. From what aspects to preserve full stop (such as the physics engine) to which aesthetics should be cleaned up and which ones should be amplified, it sounds like worthwhile promises. The execution, however, has been polarizing, due in large part to the underwhelming visuals and a lack of editing and refinement, alongside a hefty share of technical glitches.

Order GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition at Amazon

Shin Megami Tensei V – November 12 (Switch)

It took a bit of time, but Atlus has really grasped one fact about their Shin Megami Tensei series: the fanbase still really, really likes the third entry, Nocturne. Even as the spinoff Persona series mounts in popularity and creates its own hot spinoffs – like the fighting-based Arena line – there remained plenty of enthusiasm behind the prospect of a remastered iteration of the PS2-era Nocturne, which was finally released to critical acclaim earlier this year. Aside from the rerelease, the enthusiasm has also spread into the development philosophies of the long-awaited fifth entry in the primary numbered Shin Megami Tensei series, where the vague but somewhat telling description of its “profound charm” has been laced into the new entry alongside the more objective demon-raising aspects of SMT IV.

As one would expect, players gain control of a high-school student who ropes a few buddies into a demon search through underground tunnels. Shortly after entering the tunnels, the player gets transported to an alternate reality version of Tokyo embroiled in a war between angels and demons, where the existence of the high-schooler – and his friends — soon becomes linked with that of a god-like being so that the students can get directly involved with the battle. From there, the signature turn-based combat system of the Shin Megami Tensei series and the frequently challenging nature of its battles take hold, supported by a choice-and-consequence system that’ll help dictate the sort of ending you’ll receive.  It’s a manifestation of much enthusiasm that’s currently exclusive to the Switch.

Halo: Infinite – December 8 (Xbox O/S/X; PC)

Xbox turns 20 this year, and it’s hard to argue with the assertion that the most popular … well, thing, period, to ever come out of Microsoft’s console would be their exhilarating sci-fi shooter series, Halo. The first confidently labeled itself “Combat Evolved” and the distinction didn’t feel unmerited, providing an engaging campaign and multiplayer experience that handily dethroned previous competitors such as GoldenEye, escalating the popularity of LAN parties and shaping the PvP landscape as it’s known today. Its sequels would refine the positive aspects of that experience, even when the campaign’s storytelling or brevity would wobble and waver across both Bungie and 343’s installments. After half of a decade away from regular installments, Master Chief has decided to jump back into action for the 20^th anniversary of Xbox in Halo: Infinite.

With the creative energy of former Bungie writer and cinematics director Joseph Staten as the project lead of the campaign, Halo: Infinite aspires to bring the series back to its original glory in the modern era, tying familiar aesthetics and plot devices into a new story of alien invasion and world repair. Players once again control Master Chief for the entirety of the game as they zip across the landscape of Zeta Halo, opening up the gameplay for free roaming and emergent battles while also sticking to a firm campaign with its sights sets on Cortana. The multiplayer also has its heart in the right place by focusing on familiar modes such as capture the flag and slayer, while also incorporating new powers and designs to spice up the formula. More than anything, though, folks who’ve played Halo: Infinite have reaffirmed the expected: the gunplay is outstanding, and should make either campaign or multiplayer a blast.

Order Halo: Infinite at Amazon

The end of year has a cluster of other interesting titles worth looking into, though one of them may or may not be Battlefield 2042, which has been getting dragged through the mud by the community and certainly is up against some hefty competition in the shooter genre through here. Just Dance 2022 (November 4) gets the party moving at the end of the year with a smattering of new songs and intricate choreography, while Football Manager 2022 (November 9) keeps the pace slow, familiar, yet addictive with its updated roster simulation gameplay. Similar to Far Cry: Blood Dragon, the Borderlands-themed DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon’s Keep (November 9) has received a standalone release, while Frogwares has returned to the Sherlock Holmes for something of a prequel, Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (November 16), that focuses on the detective’s career in his early twenties. There’s also a space combat game called Chorus (December 3) worth keeping an eye on, as well as a futuristic platformer Solar Ash (December 2).

Notable Video Game Releases Closing Out 2021: Call of Duty, Halo, MOAR SKYRIM

Thomas Spurlin

There’s little use denying that the past year has been a challenge for the video game industry, notably for fans of Xbox systems who haven’t had much luck finding their Series console of choice since November of 2020. There aren’t many ways that Microsoft can really make up for it, either, because of factors beyond their control. However, one could consider their big Game Pass Ultimate addition at least a mild way of softening the blow for those who subscribe to their preferred monthly service regardless of console: the inclusion of the latest title in what’s arguably the most significant, important franchise in the history of Xbox.

Like most other things surrounding it, the rest of the titles are less memorable from both the other Game Pass offerings and the Games With Gold, but there are a few gems that aren’t so sus from among the rest.  Let’s take a closer look, but before we do, jump over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate on Amazon to gain the benefits of both sides.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Halo: Infinite

For an entertaining deep-dive into the evolution of gaming and evidence of just how ingrained Halo is with the culture, head over and search through the images on Google for “Halo LAN party”. You’ll spot many things: big, outdated televisions and monitors; bottles of beer and Mountain Dew atop foldout tables; nearly as many smiles or intense faces as there are cables spread out everywhere. Most of these parties focused on the highly refined multiplayer of Halo 2, but all the early titles had their moments of fun like this before online multiplayer really took over … and even now, convenience be damned, people tap into nostalgia with classic LAN get-togethers. In essence, this is the spirit of Xbox as a gaming console, and while Halo has had its ups and down in quality in recent years, this’ll never change.

Halo: Infinite ends the franchise’s half-decade hiatus by way of 343 Industries, throwing Master Chief into battle against an alien coalition known as the Banished on the ringworld Zeta Halo. Tied to this is an extension of the saga between Master Chief and Cortana, now a rogue and rebelling AI who’s the target for removal, as well as a more open-world landscape for battle engagements. Players have been notoriously fickle about the recent lore and storytelling of Halo, but for the most part they’ve been satisfied thus far with the directions the plot has taken. Multiplayer is, of course, paramount for Halo: Infinite, and luckily it seems as if the community has remained satisfied with the quality since it entered beta testing in the middle of November. After two decades, Halo delivers once again.

Among Us

The pandemic succeeded in making a pair of games surprisingly popular, likely much more so than they would have under other circumstances, and they’re both for widely different reasons. Animal Crossing provided a creative, stable outlet for people to just … well, tend their garden and mind their business in a calming and cute slice-of-life management simulator.  The other does exactly the opposite. Among Us borrows the gameplay philosophy behind Werewolf, Mafia, and other identity deduction games, and during the pandemic’s peaks it provided ways for players to interact online and play a unique, layered game with one another.

The concept sounds like the classic sci-fi movie The Thing, in which a group of astronauts on an isolated station have been infiltrated by “impostors” whose objective is to sabotage and eliminate the crew. Players, who can range from 4 to now over a dozen, are randomly and discreetly selected to be either legitimate crewmates or impostors; impostors go about fake duties to try and convince others that they’re on the up and up, or they end up being labeled “sus”-picious.  Votes are held as to who gets to stay aboard when something suspicious happens, and the deduction skills – and deflection skills – of the players will determine who gets thrown out the airlock.  It’s a familiar party-game derivative a la Resistance and Secret Hitler, but the personality and online versatility of Among Us make it a quite enjoyable iteration in these trying times.

Mortal Kombat 11

Next year will mark the 30^th anniversary of the release of the original Mortal Kombat, and it’s really tough to wrap one’s brain around that. It started as a taboo gaming experience – one that sparked Congressional hearings – and morphed into a console decision maker during the peak of the “wars”, dependent on whether someone wanted Nintendo’s edited version or SEGA’s unedited release. It all seems like old news now, but the topic of the realistic body models and the gruesome fatalities – end-of-battle finishing moves that involve heaps of blood and broken or impaled body parts – caused an immense stir. The folks at Midway, and now the folks at NetherRealm Studios, have embraced that unsavory reputation and continued to up the ante in the brutal, yet engaging and layered fighting game.  

With that reputation also comes a hefty fanbase that’s ready to scrutinize every title, and the latest installment, MK11, earned a mixture of polarized opinions from among its fanbase. For some, it’s the pinnacle of what Mortal Kombat can be in the current era and heavily satisfies those who “grew up” with the original iconic 3-4 games that started the franchise. For others, the game’s emphasis on flashier aspects over more hardcore fighting-game complexity comes across as trying to appeal to too-broad of an audience. Regardless of where one falls on that spectrum, Mortal Kombat 11 continues to offer narrative progression and bountiful item/cosmetic collection in single player and fluid combat in online and multiplayer formats, and it’s universally regarded as the best-looking MK to date.

It’s also worth noting that the version of Flight Simulator 2020 available through Game Pass has been upgraded to the Game of the Year edition, and that two exquisite narrative-based adventure games — Campo Santo’s Firewatch and Double Fine’s Broken Age — have also snuck in under the radar.

Xbox Games With Gold

Over on the legacy subscription wing at Xbox, they’ve served up yet another passable, unexciting foursome of free titles for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 that fail to prompt one to continue shelling out for the service if that’s their primary reason for doing so.  On current-gen consoles, they’ve made available The Escapists 2 (December 1-31), a prison break sim that taps into a similarly charming multiplayer energy to that of Among Us. Retro pixel graphics mesh with a top-down gaming perspective as the player crafts a strategy to flee, both figuratively and literally through the game’s item crafting system. Players seem to run out of fun with the single player experience after a while, but still enjoy the multiplayer escapes. There’s also Tropico 5 (December 16-January 15), the last installment in the longstanding island construction sim franchise developed by Haemimont Games, which was met with irritation from players and critics alike for spit-polishing the status quo and not improving the wobbly infrastructure of the previous games.

In terms of legacy titles, there’s Orcs Must Die! (December 1-15), a third-person fantasy action game that’s a mix of tower defense and horde mode. It has spawned a handful of sequels, notably one that came out last year on Stadia and ported over to consoles in July of this year, and they’ve all received moderately positive marks from critics and players for its quirky attitude and clever blending of genres. The other title is Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (December 16-31), a side-scrolling spacecraft shooting game that comes across as if a flying saucer with a little blaster has decided to explore the worlds of LIMBO and World of Goo.  

December’s Xbox Game Pass, Gold Titles: More Than Halo: Infinite is Among Us

Thomas Spurlin

Well, we’ve entered into the year 2022, and Microsoft continues to maintain both their Game Pass Ultimate and Games With Gold programs, available separately or the more common priced-reduced bundled service. One remains an outstanding value, and the games introduced into the Game Pass library this month only strengthen those impressions, making available both heavy-hitters and indie darlings alike. The other … ? Well, the benefits of Games With Gold continue to center on access to sales and being able to play online with friends, though that’s rumored to be on the chopping block in the near future to make online gaming free for both paid and free-to-play titles. The free titles are a footnote upon a footnote, and continue to become more discouraging with each passing month.

The baseline subscription fee for both Game Pass + Gold is still worthwhile, however, and should be considered the ideal way to be a member of Team Xbox, whereas Microsoft’s making it harder and harder to justify being purely a Games With Gold subscriber. Let’s take a closer look at what’s on offer from both sides, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Game Pass Ultimate Card at Amazon so save a few space bucks.  

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming Titles

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

This year will mark a decade since the original Mass Effect trilogy concluded in spectacular, albeit polarizing fashion. Despite the nature of its ending, the series has maintained a loyal, passionate fanbase who — whether through the good old passage of time, the assistance of end-game mods, or understanding that it wasn’t so bad after all — has come to accept what’s there and clamored for a remastering of the emotive space opera RPG. Years passed without a peep, and then rumors emerged about a new “legendary edition” that would be bringing the games to the new generation of console gaming. Would it just be a simple pass-through remaster to get the visuals up to proper HD strength, or would they be overhauling the gameplay and tinkering with a few things, such as the disparity between the first clunky, RP-centric Mass Effect and the more fluidly engineered third-person shooting of ME2 and ME3. And up until release, this kind of remained a mystery.

The answer, as seen in the Legendary Edition remastered bundle of all three Mass Effect games with every ounce of story DLC included, is something in between. ME2 and ME3 have seen subtle, but noticeable improvements in graphical prowess, environment layouts, character cohesiveness, the morality system’s levels and other aspects, but by and large remain “the same”. Mass Effect 1, however, has been dramatically altered in terms of both impressive visuals and gameplay, yet in such a way that doesn’t stray from the original game’s intentions; weapon access, using cover, squad control and general AI, gunplay accuracy, and enemy vulnerability have all been overhauled. Those looking for a remake with additional content will be disappointed; those looking for a vastly superior upgrade in how they enjoy the Mass Effect universe should absolutely suit up to turn some virtual asses into actual dust.

Gears (of War) 5

While Mass Effect often showed up on short lists for one of those “must play” games for the Xbox 360, it was almost always guaranteed that the original Gears of War would be near the top of ‘em all. Other games did it well enough before, but the sci-fi shooter mastered the art of designing levels and gameplay intensity around cover-based action. Cap that off with an undeniably cheesy ‘80s-movie amount of bravado from the heroes and their thirst for bloody violence, and you’ve got the recipe for a franchise that runs strong for an entire trilogy … and then carries over into less iconic, yet still enjoyable spinoffs and additional games.  Thing is, with both the games outside the original trilogy, it became obvious that both the narrative and the third-person shooter gameplay were starting to show some rust. The excitement’s still there, along with the fanbase, but the series just needed something fresh.

Gears of War 5 makes it clear that they’re getting things up to new standards by dropping the “of War” from the title that so often gets left off anyway in casual conversation, delivering just Gears 5. On top of developing the younger, newer characters from the previous games, game-makers The Coalition also get their hands dirty with semi open-world gameplay concepts and very light RPG aspects for variety and breadth. When adding these things, The Coalition makes sure to preserve – and, in a way, recapture – the bravado of the earlier titles from Epic Games, showcasing a devotion not just to getting back to the series’ roots, but also to spruce them up and make them feel relevant in the new generation.  Both critics and players agree that the craftsmanship was largely a success, praising the campaign and the open-world implementation, even though some feel it retreads old storytelling elements.

Outer Wilds

What started out as a college thesis project made by someone who wasn’t really interested in crafting full video games at the time, soon developed into a fleshed-out, commercial sci-fi exploration experience that shows up on numerous “best of year” lists and even a few “best of all time” lists as well. Outer Wilds – not to be confused with Obsidian’s Outer Worlds, which shares a few similar gameplay and atmospheric elements – takes the player on an adventure through a solar system caught in a time loop.  Every 22 minutes, a star goes supernova and effectively resets the clock, sending our stalwart alien astronaut character back to square one in his search for an answer.  With some help from alien technology, he’s able to remember anything he’s learned in the previous loops, so his objective becomes to explore the galaxy and gather as much info as possible to discover a solution to the supernova.

Outer Wilds relies entirely on the immersion of its exploration, a combination of the general atmospheric intentions and objective-based adventuring of the likes of No Man’s Sky, Mass Effect, and Outer Worlds. The activity isn’t about engaging enemies, though, instead about discovering answers, solving puzzles, and unearthing knowledge at the various points of the solar system to fix the problem. This pieces together into more of an interactive experience than a traditional game, though survival is a concern and death can reset the clock if not monitored carefully.  Both critics and players have heaps of wonderful things to say about Outer Wilds, from the direction and destination of the narrative to the  execution of exploration and atmosphere.

Xbox Games With Gold

The strategy behind the games selected for Xbox’s Games With Gold doesn’t make a whole lot of sense at this stage, unless one applies a simple, pessimistic line of thought to it: they’ve stopped being concerned with keeping their subscriber base satisfied or interested. For the Xbox One, they’ve selected a retro twinstick shooter indie called NeuroVoider (January 1-30) that blends pixel graphics with robotics, as well as a 8-bit sidescrolling building/resource sim called Aground (January 16 – February 15) that shows some clear similarities to Minecraft. Both seem well-crafted and potentially engaging, yet neither have pulled enough attention from critics or players to have much of a reputation, certainly not on the level of the bounty of high-profile titles that Microsoft could theoretically include with the program. This signals de-prioritization.  

The legacy titles are about of the same caliber, though a bit more significant than the Xbox One offerings as of late.  Radiant Silvergun (January 1-15) is a polished “restored” version of a popular late-‘90s arcade shoot-‘em-up featuring futuristic fighter pilots versus alien forces, and is viewed as the precursor to the classic Ikaruga. Space Invaders: Infinite Gene (January 16 – January 31) takes the classic arcade title and spit-shines it for the semi-modern era, capturing a similar tone and excitement to the updated iteration of Tetris or Geometry Wars. These will at least ignite a spark of nostalgia.

Xbox Game Pass, Gold Freebies: Lotsa Sci-Fi For the New Year

Thomas Spurlin

It’s February and love’s in the air, so that means the folks at Xbox will be extra generous with their Games With Gold and Game Pass offerings this month … right? Well, it was worth a try. In actuality, this month feels a bit different in the other direction since neither of Microsoft’s subscription services have been gifted much in the way of “WOW!” titles.  From lower-tier shooters to under-the-radar RPGs and hidden gem action-platformers, it’s a moderate yet unshowy month in terms of new content that’ll draw in subscribers for Game Pass, and, well, the less said about what’s going on with Games With Gold, the better. Let’s take a closer look at the titles, but before doing so, be sure to head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at Amazon.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

CrossfireX

Someone who sticks to consoles for their gaming needs very likely hasn’t heard of Crossfire, though most PC gamers who enjoy the online shooter space know that it’s one of the most popular and widely played free-to-play shooting games in existence, remaining as such a decade-plus after release.  For the most part, and understandably so due to the gap in time for in a western release and the culture surrounding several other online shooters, a huge part of this popularity rests in eastern countries.  Despite the rampant regional enthusiasm, Smilegate hopes to further break into the global market, and they’re making an attempt with the Xbox exclusive semi-sequel CrossfireX.

Partnering with Max Payne and Control developers Remedy Entertainment to help craft the campaign side of the game, Smilegate essentially drops CrossfireX as the console representation of their already-popular online offering with a unique episodic campaign tacked on for good measure. Impressions from both players and critics haven’t been kind to CrossfireX thus far, though: the campaign additions have come across as atypically short and generic for a unique studio like Remedy, but it’s the general shooter gameplay that’s getting dragged for being uninteresting and lacking content.  The multiplayer of CrossfireX is inherently free-to-play, whereas the campaign constitutes pay-to-play content, both of which seem to be included with the Game Pass listing for free download.

Edge of Eternity

Gaming culture has reached a point where turn-based RPGs really need something extra and noteworthy to be worth the time and energy investment required to pour into them. Whether it’s mixing modern gaming styles and techniques with the old, the novelty of turn-based combat in an unlikely genre (like martial arts in Yakuza), or the resurrection of a beloved franchise whose identity is tied to it, there needs to be a “reason” for players to engage in those legacy designs. More than that, it seems as if simply creating a new world and hoping that turn-based RPG elements will be serviceable enough to carry the player through it doesn’t work as well as it once did.

The aptly-titled Midgar Studio – named after the primary city in the classic turn-based JRPG Final Fantasy VII — have delivered Edge of Eternity on the hopes that its sci-fi/fantasy fusion of storytelling will still get the job done. As the story follows along weatherworn tropes of a corrosive “taint” spreading across the open-world realm due to an advanced race of alien invaders and the chosen pair of heroes hoping to cure it, the gameplay centers on both hex-based and semi-live combat scenarios that pay homage to many classic JRPGs. Both critics and players have pointed out that Edge of Eternity has significant roughness to its execution and drags in pacing throughout, though players have also commended it for the nostalgic spirit, flickers of ambitiousness, and eventual spikes of intensity in the story.

Nobody Saves the World

Guacamelee remains one of the more overlooked action games on consoles. The folks at Drinkbox Games telegraph heaps of Mexican lucha-libre bravado and beat-‘em-up Metroidvania gameplay in a setting that repeatedly shifts between the realms of the living and the dead — long before Pixar did similar things with Coco — all beautifully rendered in vibrant colors and charm. The developer’s success with Guacamelee and its sequel can’t help but make one enthusiastic about what they’d do with the fantasy dungeon-crawling subgenre, how they’ll possibly make it jut as vivid and humorous. The result is Nobody Saves the World, the tale of a stark white protagonist with no personality of their own who must adopt the “skins” of other fallen heroes to power through their dungeons.

With a magical wand in hand granting them the power to transform into an assortment of critters and characters – from rats and slugs to rogues and monks – Nobody delves into a world of procedurally-generated dungeons packed with quests and challenges, which naturally earns experience points.   The signature personality of Drinkbox once again comes through in both the character animations and the ways in which the energized gameplay interacts with the characters. Perhaps the sweetest detail about Nobody Saves the World is that one Nobody doesn’t have to go at it alone: the game not only features multiplayer, but encourages it through how the magical forms can interact. Both players and critics have been enthusiastic about what Drinkbox has created, even if the general dungeon-crawling repetition still seems to set in after a while with the game despite the variety of forms.

Hitman Trilogy

Like many franchises moving from console generation to generation, the Hitman franchise of stealth-action games hit a lull near the end of the Xbox/PS2 era. Eventually, this led to a new release in the PS3/360 era, Hitman: Absolution, but it didn’t quite capture the same tight experience of the originals and, thus, didn’t have the kind of sales performance that’d reignite confidence in the franchise.  Hitman was, once again, put on the shelf for a number of years to better figure out how to make it work in the current gaming era. Eventually, developers IO Interactive and Square Enix made what seems to have been the correct decision: it was time to “soft reboot” Agent 47 without fully starting from scratch, taking the lessons learned from Absolution and applying them to a version of Hitman that gets the series back to its open-ended, puzzle-solving roots.

Despite the minor snafu of initially releasing it in episodic segments, the full breadth of 2016’s Hitman reestablished the franchise as a contender in the increasingly crowded space of quality stealth games. This eventually led to a pair of sequels, the simply-titled Hitman 2 and Hitman 3, that understand their audience and what they want: while IO Interactive does experiment with the zaniness of the missions, landscapes, and skills, they never stray very far from the core enjoyment factors and mechanics that satisfy their player base and connect them into a cohesive trilogy. Thus, it’s no surprise to see them package in a Hitman Trilogy such as this, which utilizes the Access Pass system through Hitman 3 to access all three titles.

Xbox Games With Gold

Sure, the Games With Gold program has been going for quite a while now, and it might be slightly difficult to come up with feasible higher-profile free Xbox One and 360 titles to include with Xbox’s baseline subscription service … but other options are still there. Instead of pinpointing some of these exciting titles perhaps as a last hurrah for a fading subscription service, we’ve once again got a pair of low-attention indies for the Xbox One and less-than-stellar inclusions for the legacy consoles. Now, admittedly, it does make me smile to see something like Broken Sword 5: The Serpent’s Curse (February 1-28) available as a free download, since some of my fondest gaming memories come from similar point-and-click adventures (LucasArts, Sierra, etc) to that of the globetrotting adventure and murder mystery it provides. The stylish but repetitive indie puzzle runner Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield (February 16 – March 15) feels like an obligation filler instead of an excitement driver.

On the retro console side, there’s Hydrophobia (February 1-15), an action game that received middling reviews over a decade ago and only succeeded as, essentially, a tech demo for environmental water effects. Rounding out the offerings is Band of Bugs (February 16-28), a turn-based tactics RPG-ish game with a Hero’s Journey type of story, several multiplayer modes, and a level editor for continued enjoyment after finishing the game.  Both have middling critical and audience scores, leaving one to wonder why they aren’t at least pairing iffy titles with at least one solidly good one.

Xbox Game Pass, Gold Titles for February: Nobody’s Saving the World With This Middling Lineup

Thomas Spurlin

There’s a storm coming on the horizon for Xbox’s Game Pass and Games With Gold subscription service, in the form of relatively even competition in the monthly game subscription arena. By the time June rolls around, the comparisons will become much more evenly balanced. Who knows whether a new sub service arms race will kick into gear – here’s hoping both really push it to make their services extra appealing – but until then, it’s unsurprising to see the Xbox take a step back from huge titles at this point.

April is a relatively normal month for Game Pass and Gold, in which the biggest titles are an interactive adventure game and a repeat of a day-and-date sports title that came to the service last year to much more fanfare, and once again with very little attention paid to the waning Games With Gold section of the program.  Let’s take a closer look at the games, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at Amazon.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – New and Upcoming

Life is Strange: True Colors

The development teams at Dontnod Entertainment and Deck Nine Games have gradually crafted a franchise of meaningful interactive adventures with the Life is Strange series, which incorporate meaningful relationship, political, and sexual identity themes into alluring mysteries. Responsibility for the series moving forward seems to be in the hands of Deck Nine, though – Dontnod plunged deeper into challenging character mysteries with the middling-reviewed Tell Me Why – with Life is Strange: True Colors standing as Deck Nine’s first fresh creation independent from the established characters.  

Players gain control of Alex Chen, a young woman with supernatural “empathy” powers whose traumatic family history looped her into the foster care system, but who later gets to reconnect with her brother in the town of Haven Springs, Colorado. When her brother ends up being murdered shortly after, Alex has to use her powers to help connect with those in connection with Gabe and bring her closer to answers to what happened. Both critics and players appreciate the substance of Alex’s character, the ways that graphics and facial animations enhanced small dramatic conversations, and the intimacy of the supernatural powers, though Life is Strange: True Colors does get dinged for being too effortlessly pleasant and for the branching paths all seeming like they arrive at the same destination.

MLB The Show 2022

Last year around this time, The Show made its debut onto Xbox consoles for the very first time, marking the end of a very long exclusivity deal that kept licensed MLB simulation games locked onto its competitor’s devices. Also at this time last year, the decision was made to also include The Show 2021 through the Game Pass program, a significant move from the growing premium subscription service. With those things together, expectations naturally grew with how San Diego Studio would elevate the quality for this new generation of video game consoles.  Turns out? Not significantly enough to be celebrated by critics or players, who acknowledge its continuing high quality and lack of advancement.

Well, the folks at Xbox have once again made this year’s installment of The Show available through their subscription program, with the game arriving just in time in April for the MLB lockout to end. This iteration changes things up a bit more – a beefed-up stadium creation feature, new play-by-play announcers pulled from ESPN Radio, an expanded version of the shorter career mode – but for the most part critics and players acknowledge that the gameplay’s about the same as it was from the previous iteration.  This isn’t a bad thing exactly, as it remains a deep, engaging and up-to-date sim that can scratch the itch either for a quick game or a lengthy customized career experience.

Weird West

As players continue to get the itch to run through a new Fallout experience – one that isn’t online, mind you – they continue to pursue alternatives, whether it’s similar first-person survival exploration games or top-down, storytelling-rich dystopian RPGs in the vein of Wasteland 3 or Disco Elysium. Weird West, the debut title from WolfEye Studios made up of creative heads from Arkane Studios, aims to tap into the attitude of the latter with some of the vigorousness of the former. The key difference? If you screw up in this warped frontier, you might not be able to fix it.

Weird West allows the player to explore a dark western landscape and gives them the freedom to interact with the environment in a multitude of ways, though the gameplay itself hinges on twinstick shooting action that’s faster-paced and more reactive than similar isometric games. Certain aspects are randomized in the world, yet if something’s destroyed or killed, it stays that way in the game.  That can also apply to the player character, as there’s also a permadeath mode available.  As with many games from this subgenre, both critics and players heap praise upon the world-building, character interactions, and the ambitions of the gameplay systems in Weird World, but have taken issue with the execution of the gameplay and aesthetics, leading to imbalanced RPing and polarizing combat through tech issues.

F1 2021

The most recent season of F1 racing turned out to be one of the most high-stakes and controversial on the books, which was already made complicated by the cancellations of several races due to the pandemic. There’s obviously no way for the team at Codemasters to predict the future when developing their videogame adaptation of F1’s 2021 season, so this title ends up being unique in a bunch of ways, most prominently in the fact that players are still able to engage in the races that were cancelled in Australia, Canada, Japan and China.

On top of that, F1 2021 is also noteworthy for being the first title released after EA acquired Codemasters and took over publishing duties. The move didn’t seem to hamper the developer’s ambitions for this latest title, though, as the inclusion of new career storytelling, multiple player modes, playable professionals, and improved graphics bring the franchise into the new console generation with a fresh coat of paint and a few new parts under the hood. It’s what folks have come to expect from Codemasters, though, and hope to continue expecting it from them in the years to come.

Xbox Games With Gold

The Games With Gold aspect of the subscription service remains a footnote, unfortunately, sporting 2 Xbox One titles and 2 legacy Xbox titles that generate very little enthusiasm for a download … yet still hold some mild intrigue for the fastidious subscriber. Over on the Xbox One, there’s Another Sight (April 1-30), a puzzle-platformer about a blind girl and her cat as they use their strengths and weaknesses to get through challenging environments. While it earned praise for a unique concept, it doesn’t offer enough focused execution or challenge to be regarded as highly as others. Then there’s HUE (April 16 – May 15), another puzzle platformer that merges gameplay concepts from the likes of Outland and Braid, creating a silhouetted play experience based on how the player changes the background shade and interacts with it. Players and critics have been warmer to HUE, praising its aesthetic and polished execution.

On the legacy Xbox side of things, there’s Outpost: Kaloki X (April 1-15), in which the player gets to channel their inner Elon Musk and dream up new living space stations in a fashion similar to SimCity. The more revenue generated by the type of station created by the user, the more they can expand and improve, and the better they can balance their resources.  The other title is MX vs ATV Alive (Apri; 16-30), a middling-reviewed dirt bike and 4-wheeler racing game that players and critics have dinged for being a superficial title that’s got extreme racing across a limited number of courses and little else.

April’s Xbox Game Pass, Gold Newcomers Not Putting On a Big Show

Thomas Spurlin

All it takes is a few short months for subscription services to enact rumored, some might say “feared” choices that will pave the way for larger overhauls in the programs. The key one on the Xbox side of the coin being, of course: when will Games With Gold be phased out? For quite a while, Microsoft maintained that their original Gold subscription program would remain a component of their strategy for the foreseeable future, but that foreseeable future may be coming into sight with the elimination of legacy Xbox 360 and OG Xbox games in October as part of the subscription benefits. In contrast to the newer Game Pass titles, which remain eye-catching even if they aren’t high-profile, the energy has been dramatically slumping with what’s being offered through Game Pass – both Xbox One and legacy games – and seems to be slowing down as a way of approaching this discontinuation.

Let’s take a closer look at this month’s Gold titles and some recent Game Pass additions, but before doing so, head over and Grab a 3-Month Game Pass Ultimate Subscription to get the benefits of the Game Pass titles, the regular Gold sales, and of course online gaming.

XBOX Game Pass Ultimate — New and Upcoming

Inside

Many elements went into the success of LIMBO, the grayscale platformer from developers PLAYDEAD, chief among them being the stark shadowy aesthetic that gave it the visual tempo of a classic horror film. The studio had something to prove with their second project, though: that their talents extend beyond the slick gimmick that certainly accentuated the violence of a young, silhouetted protagonist repeatedly meeting their demise in gloomy shadows. INSIDE proves that there’s plenty more to them than that.

The second game from PLAYDEAD scraps the stark silhouettes and brings depth and dimension to their familiar side-scrolling gameplay mechanics, in which another young boy navigates a terrifying dystopian environment. While there might not be much color in INSIDE and the platform mechanics will feel similar, the sights and sounds come across very differently in this textural stream of nightmarish tableaus. Both critics and players have been absorbed by the insistently grim and grotesque experience, engaged by its tense levels and exploring interpretations of what its dual endings actually mean.  

Watch Dogs 2

Ubisoft’s first run at the Watch Dogs concept ended up being marred by potential that couldn’t quite be satisfied, delivering a surveillance tech stealth game that lacked the expected innovation and freedom boasted by its creators. Once the player cuts through those aspects, however, the overall experience delivers familiar stealth action game design with fresh tools at its disposal, eventually earning a reputation after a few years for being somewhat underrated. With expectations more in check and a list of things to improve, Ubisoft Montreal took a second crack at the concept with Watch Dogs 2.

Armed with a superior protagonist and a more engaging narrative that borrows a little from the likes of Minority Report, this sequel centers on a hacker wrongly accused of committing crimes by the predictive aspects of San Francisco’s electronic infrastructure. From there, Watch Dogs 2 takes the general outline of the first game and juices up the mission structure, the flexibility of the user interface, and the general openness of the game design. Both critics and players acknowledge the focus on those improvements while also dinging it for not refining its suspension of disbelief or not letting go of certain things that just didn’t work, landing on a generally more positive impression than the one left by the original.

Torment: Tides of Numenera

There was a glorious period in the mid-2010s where isometric RPGs made a serious run at a comeback in the absence of many other fantasy-RPing options, largely on the energy of wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns that proved the interest is still very much there. Alongside Pillars of Eternity that provides a “spiritual successor” to the likes of Baldur’s Gate, Torment: Tides of Numenera focuses on doing the same as a love letter to Planescape: Torment, concerning itself with dense, layered storytelling that molds to player choices throughout the adventure.

Taking place far into a future where civilizations have risen and fallen, Torment refocuses on the world in a less-advanced state full of scattered settlements and lingering mysteries from before the setting’s “Ninth Age”.  The protagonist has been constructed as the “vessel” for an ancient man who has discovered how to transfer consciousness from body to body, and it’s up to the protagonist to stop the chain and to defeat a force called “The Sorrow” before it consumes them both.  As expected, the narrative and choice-and-consequence versatility in Torment: Tides of Numenera have been widely celebrated and deemed worth playing for any RPG fan interested in those aspects; however, many critics and players view the clunky mundaneness of its combat and encounters as a big obstacle.

Xbox Games With Gold

For those still riding on the Gold train, we’ve got a foursome of middling, yet decent titles that can certainly be described as eclectic. Over on the Xbox One, we’ve got Calico (August 1-31), a management sim in which the player runs their own … cat café, or more accurately reconstructs one within a town and repopulates it with new furry residents. Some who might be drawn into the pastel, magical aesthetic and cat collection and management might want to give it a go, but critics and players have struggled with glitches and bugs since launch. The other title is ScourgeBringer (August 16 – September-15), a colorful and retro-infused roguelike platformer that delivers the kind of fast-paced challenge and rinse-and-repeat learning gameplay that devotees of the genres adore.

In one of the last months of legacy titles to be offered, at least Microsoft’s going out with a banger or two. This month, they’re offering folks the chance to have Saints Row 2 (August 1-15) — yes, the game that’s routinely priced lower than $5 through digital sales — ready to go on their hard-drives for free. As the middle title between the franchise’s slightly more serious first game and the balls-out humor of Saints Row: The Third (my personal favorite), the second one strikes a pretty satisfying balance between those two spectrums as it imitates the open-world gangster gameplay of Grand Theft Auto with a satirical edge. Finally, there’s Monaco: What’s Yours is Mine (August 16-31), a top-down heist management and strategy game noteworthy for being developed by the sole designer behind Pocketwatch Games.

Xbox Game Pass, Gold Freebies for August Keep Excitement on Inside